Bus driver charged with involuntary manslaughter in deadly crash in Virginia

The driver of a motor coach bus that crashed into six vehicles in Virginia early Friday, killing five people and injuring dozens more, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, Virginia State Police announced Saturday.

Additional charges are pending against the bus driver, identified as Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, state police said in a press release.

The bus, which was traveling from New York City to Charlotte and carrying about 34 people, crashed into several vehicles around 2:35 a.m. Friday before coming to rest on the side of Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia.

State police said traffic had been slowing in the area ahead of a work zone, but preliminary information indicates the bus failed to do so. “The crash remains under investigation at this time,” state police said Saturday.

The five people killed were in vehicles struck by the bus.

State police said the bus first struck a Chevrolet Suburban, which was then forced into an Acura SUV and other vehicles. Priscilla R. Mafalda, 36, from Worcester, Massachusetts, was in the Suburban and died, police said.

Four people inside the Acura were killed: a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts. The Acura caught on fire after the collisions, police said. Virginia police declined to release their names, citing a state law that prevents the direct or indirect identification of juvenile victims.

Forty-four other people were injured and taken to hospitals, state police said. Three of them suffered critical injuries, according to state police. Many of those injured have been released, local hospital officials said.

Dong was injured, police said.

The bus was operated by E&P Travel, state police said. The company, which is based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and operates four buses, has faced three violations for speeding at least 15 mph over the limit during the past two years, federal records show.

In 2024, one of the company’s buses was involved in a crash in Lexington, North Carolina, in which it failed to slow down and struck another vehicle from behind, North Carolina State Highway Patrol records show. Nine people were injured in that crash, according to federal records.

Company officials did not respond to messages seeking comment on Friday.

In addition to Virginia State Police, the National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the crash in Stafford County.

On Saturday, NTSB board member Tom Chapman said investigators will aim to determine whether the driver braked before the crash. “It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking, there wasn’t much, because of the speed and the severity of the collision,” he said at a news conference.

It was unclear how fast the bus was going at the time of the crash, though Chapman said, “It appears, clearly, a high rate of speed,” he said.

An NTSB investigative team is expected to be on-site for five to seven days, with a preliminary report expected within 30 days. Investigators are looking into factors such as human performance, lighting conditions, weather, mechanical conditions of the vehicles, and whether the bus company is in compliance with state and federal regulations, said NTSB investigator in charge Eric Gregson. A technical reconstruction group will also map and document physical evidence on the highway, Gregson said.

“Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, and to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again,” Chapman said.

State and federal investigators are looking into the bus driver’s actions before the crash.

Chapman said investigators will look into the bus driver’s history, including his activities during the 72 hours leading up to the crash, looking at everything from potential sleep issues to possible drug or alcohol use.

On Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy wrote in a statement on X that the bus driver did not speak English. The Post has not been able to verify the claim, and the NTSB’s Chapman said Saturday that investigators were still assessing the driver’s language proficiency. “We don’t have enough information at this point to have drawn any conclusions,” he said.